“can you believe her?” minkyung complained, her hands on her hips. “why couldn’t she just give me an extra paper to write or something?”

“didn’t you get into this situation because you didn’t write the papers she already assigned?” her roommate, kyungwon, responded without looking up from her laptop screen.

minkyung huffed. technically, kyungwon was right. there had been more than one due date that had slipped right by her without minkyung’s notice, and now she had a failing grade in one of her core classes three weeks before the end of the semester. her professor had been accommodating in helping her correct the issue before finals, but when her professor promised to find something she could do for extra credit, this was not what minkyung had been expecting.

“literature and composition is a dumb class anyway. it has nothing to do with my major,” she said. “and if i didn’t have time to do my assignments before, what makes her think i have time to tutor some brainless underclassman?”

“maybe the brainless underclassman is in the same position as you. agreed to get tutoring for extra credit.” minkyung wondered how kyungwon could speak and type at the same time because her fingers didn’t even stutter. it was kind of impressive, actually.

 

 

 

(xxx) xxx – xxxx

minkyung: hey this is minkyung, prof choi said she talked to you about me tutoring you for finals?

?: yeah she did you can come over my place if you want

minkyung: sure! when are you free?

?: this week i’m at work until 10 every night.

?: but you can come over after that if you’re ok with it

minkyung: i’m never asleep until after midnight anyway tbh so it’s fine with me

?: ok i’ll send you my address later

minkyung: ok!

 

 

 

minkyung regretted her decision before she even knocked on the door. she could hear the pounding bass of a foreign pop song through the walls, mixed with loud laughter every once in a while. it did not seem like the kind of place to study, even in the middle of the night.

the girl she was supposed to be tutoring had been perfectly polite when they were texting earlier that day, but minkyung couldn’t shake the feeling that this was not going to go well. she didn’t even know her name, and it was almost 11pm already, and if this blasting music was any indication, she had her doubts on whether they were going to be able to focus at all.

to the girl’s credit, the music cut off as soon as minkyung gathered the courage to knock. a few seconds later, the door swung open before her, the girl’s back facing her as she waved off some people in the apartment behind her. minkyung just saw a flash of light-colored hair disappear down the hallway before the girl spun her head around and minkyung’s attention was snapped back to her.

“sorry,” the girl apologized quickly, her blonde hair settling around her shoulders. “you’re minkyung, right?”

minkyung swallowed, willing her voice to come out steady. “yeah, that’s me.”

the girl smiled. “come on in,” she stepped aside to let minkyung into the apartment.

as soon as she stepped through the door, minkyung was enveloped in the smell of weed. it was strong, and minkyung knew they must have been smoking just before she showed up. otherwise, it was actually a pretty cute apartment. cluttered, maybe, but she couldn’t expect anything less from college students in the city.

“sorry about my roommates,” the girl was saying, closing the door and stepping around minkyung in the entrance. “they were already, uh, in the middle of a party when i got home. they promised to be quiet, though.”

minkyung nodded, still looking around. there were a couple empty beer bottles on the coffee table, and the television was playing soundlessly on the far wall. someone in the room down the hall banged against something, and there was a sudden thud and a roar of laughter. the girl’s head swung around to look in the direction of the noise. minkyung’s attention kept straying back to the girl’s face, no matter how many other things she looked at in the apartment.

she looked familiar, minkyung thought, though she couldn’t place why.

the girl sighed and turned back to minkyung. “it might be an impossible request for them, though,” she admitted. she stepped out of the entrance to the apartment and jumped up to sit on the dining table, her legs swinging off the edge.

minkyung followed her with her eyes. “i never got your name,” she said, her voice tinted with embarrassment.

the girl grinned. “kang yebin,” she said, before scanning minkyung up and down and adding, “you can come in, you know.”

minkyung took a step forward, but the girl’s name connected something in her brain, and that’s when it hit her. she hadn’t recognized her with blonde hair, but she definitely knew the other girl.

“i know you,” she said before she could stop herself. “you went to my high school. you used to hang out in the drama room and with all the national honors society kids.”

yebin hummed, sticking her hand into the pocket of her hoodie and pulling out a lighter and a small rolled blunt. minkyung watched in silence as she lit it and took a drag. she exhaled a cloud of smoke before replying. “and you were a band kid who got all the choir solos and made the choir teacher every time you opened your mouth. now we’re both flunking out of college. people change.”

“i’m not going to flunk out,” minkyung said. “it’s only one class. and professor choi promised i’d pass as long as i helped you pass your final.”

yebin took another drag of her blunt and let out a breath. “she promised me she’d pass me if i got an 85 on the final and tried my best.” she rolled her eyes. “she thinks i’m not committed.”

she held out the blunt towards minkyung in offering, but minkyung just shook her head and adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder. yebin shrugged and stuck it back between her lips.

“should we get started?” minkyung asked, feeling a little awkward.

“i’m gonna be honest,” yebin exhaled smoke with her words. “there’s no way any studying is going to happen tonight.”

“what?”

“i’ll tell professor choi you were a huge help and you’ll get your extra credit, i promise. but i’m high, and it’s late, and you can lecture me about allusions and allegories all night but not a single thing is going to stick,” she admitted. “besides, i have a better idea.”

that nagging feeling was back in the pit of minkyung’s stomach, telling her to get out of this before anything could go wrong. she swallowed around the lump in and narrowed her eyes. “what are you talking about?”

“you have a metrocard, right?”

 

 

 

minkyung held tight to the pole as the subway train left the station with a lurch. yebin’s head was ducked, staring at her cell phone, and minkyung was stuck looking at the top of her head as they stood in silence. the train was almost empty, but minkyung was too jittery to sit.

she was not a spontaneous kind of person, and yebin wouldn’t tell her what they were getting into. she’d promised it was nothing illegal or seriously dangerous, but that didn’t make minkyung feel any better. she shouldn’t have agreed in the first place, but somehow the shorter girl had convinced her way too easily.

“who are you texting?” minkyung asked, more to break the silence than actual curiosity.

“my roommate,” yebin said lightly. “she helped me plan what we’re going to do, but she refused to actually help.” she looked up at minkyung with a small grin, the kind minkyung was already starting to recognize as very dangerous. “that’s why you’re here.”

“but you won’t tell me what it is.”

yebin shook her head. “nope, not until it’s too late. i don’t know what kind of morals you have yet.”

“what?” minkyung’s eyebrows drew together in confusion.

“don’t start overthinking again,” yebin said. “just trust me.”

“i met you a half hour ago,” minkyung pointed out. yebin breathed out a quiet laugh as the train jolted to a stop.

“come on, this is ours.” she nodded her head towards the doors and slipped her cell phone in her back pocket. minkyung followed her without question, trying her best to ignore her conscience telling her to get as far away from this girl as possible.

yebin led her out of the train station and up the stairs onto the street. they were in a quiet part of town, mostly dark buildings and residential duplexes. minkyung had never stopped to take close notice of it before, but yebin seemed to know exactly where they were going.

they had been walking for about ten minutes when yebin stopped to pull open the door of a brightly lit building, the sign outside advertising a 24-hour market. the man behind the counter looked up and nodded politely when they came in, but otherwise looked uninterested. minkyung could already tell they were the only patrons in the store.

“what are we doing?” she asked again, hoping yebin would budge a little. yebin didn’t even glance back at her, making her way to the back of the store.

“getting supplies,” she said simply.

“what kind of supplies?”

“from the pet section.”

minkyung was more confused than ever, but she followed yebin back through the shelves to the darker part of the store, the part people clearly didn’t expect to be inhabited in the middle of the night. everything towards the front had been bright and easy to find, but the fluorescent lights seemed to dim the farther back they got.

finally the shorter girl stopped in front of a tank along the back wall, surrounded by shelving units full of dog food and cat litter. she smiled in satisfaction and minkyung’s eyes followed her gaze to the contents of the tank.

“are those…” she trailed off, confused.

“crickets,” yebin finished proudly. she crouched down to look closer at the bugs in the tank, her eyes bright. her excitement was obvious, and it lit a small fire of worry in minkyung.  “meant for feeding lizards and stuff. but tonight, they’re going to help us get revenge on a girl from my psych class.”

“what?” minkyung asked, getting tired of being constantly kept in the dark. “is that what we’re doing? getting revenge on someone?”

yebin nodded absently, her attention focused on the crickets. minkyung bit her lip and glanced around, the worry only growing the longer she was in the other girl’s presence. this was already seeming like a very bad idea, and minkyung had no idea what she was actually getting herself into. but yebin seemed like she had everything planned out to the letter. if anything, minkyung was more curious what she was planning to do than anything.

a few minutes later yebin was carrying two containers full of live crickets back through the store, seeming completely calm. minkyung really didn’t like bugs, and the legs on those things were giving her goosebumps. she didn’t know how yebin could be so nonchalant – excited, even – holding them.

she set them on the counter in front of the man working there, who didn’t even look surprised that two young girls were buying a hundred crickets in the middle of the night. yebin gave him a smile and reached into the freezer by the counter to pull out a novelty ice cream. she held one out to minkyung, who raised her eyebrows.

“you’re going to eat ice cream while carrying live crickets around in the other hand?” she asked.

yebin shrugged. “i’m buying. are you really going to turn down free ice cream?”

minkyung blinked and took the ice cream that yebin offered.

 

 

 

“how far away is this girl’s place?” minkyung asked a couple minutes later, taking a bite of the sugar cone her ice cream was in. “that is where we’re going, right?”

yebin nodded. the two containers of crickets were stacked inside a plastic bag in one hand, the other holding her ice cream cone. her blonde hair was falling over her shoulder into her face, but she didn’t have a hand to pull it away. minkyung resisted the urge to fix it for her.

“what did she do, anyway?” minkyung wasn’t completely opposed to getting revenge on people, depending on whether or not they deserved it. and as long as it was harmless. crickets didn’t seem like the worst thing she could think to do to someone.

“she stole something from me.”

minkyung waited for a better explanation, but that was apparently as far into it as yebin was going to get.

“what’d she steal?”

“not important,” yebin said, crunching on her cone. “she and her friends hate me and mine. it’s a thing. anyway, it’s only like a block from here.”

minkyung finished her ice cream cone in silence, tired of yebin talking in circles without really telling her anything. she figured it would be easier to blindly follow whatever she said to do without asking for details and explanations.

it was getting late, but minkyung wasn’t tired. maybe it was the curiosity, or the wariness, coursing through her veins at the entire situation. she didn’t know how she had gotten herself caught up in something like this, especially for one extra credit grade for a course she didn’t even want to take in the first place. it seemed so stupid now. but the girl next to her radiated confidence and energy, and minkyung thought maybe it was less about the grade than she thought.

 

 

 

climbing onto a stranger’s fire escape at midnight on a weekday was not how minkyung expected college to go, but she figured she shouldn’t have expected anything less from yebin.

“i thought you said nothing illegal,” she said, giving the younger girl a pointed look. yebin motioned for her to be quiet, peering through the curtains of the open window they were crouched next to. “breaking and entering is illegal.”

“we didn’t break anything,” yebin pointed out, her voice low. “and we’re not going to get caught. now shut up.”

the apartment was dark, but yebin wanted to wait a few minutes to make sure nobody was awake and walking around. so far nothing had moved, but minkyung was getting a bad feeling about this. pranks were one thing, but breaking into someone’s apartment just to enact revenge for something she didn’t even know about was a little much.

yebin was staring through the window with quiet intensity, looking absolutely focused. minkyung couldn’t help but wonder what the girl had done to her to make her care this much about getting revenge.

“okay, follow me,” yebin whispered. “all you have to do is close the door when i release the crickets as quietly as possible. then get back here as fast as possible.”

minkyung nodded hesitantly. there was no getting out of this now, and she knew it would be best not to get caught by the girl yebin was holding a grudge against. going along with her plan was the best option.

yebin climbed through the window first, landing lightly on the other side and reaching through to take hold of the containers of crickets. minkyung followed a second later, her landing substantially less graceful than yebin’s, but she was still weirdly proud of the lack of noise she made. yebin glanced back at her quickly and starting moving through the apartment.

she was obviously being careful and quiet and minkyung strived to do the same. the hardwood floor creaked under her feet a couple times and she stopped to let the sound die before continuing, her heartbeat pounding in her ears. she didn’t know how yebin knew her way around the girl’s apartment, even in the dark, but she wasn’t about to question her now. but without faltering even slightly, yebin opened the door to the bathroom and waved minkyung over. she knelt down and set the containers of crickets on the floor right inside the door.

minkyung stood above her and gripped the doorknob, nodding quickly at yebin in assurance. yebin glanced between her and the containers before quickly opening the top and dumping the insects out over the bathroom floor. minkyung shuddered at the sight of little legs moving in the darkness before yebin scooted back out of the doorway. she pulled the door closed quickly, pausing just before it latched to silence the sound. even standing outside in the hallway, she could hear the hundreds of legs against the tile as the crickets adjusted to their new surroundings.

yebin pulled her legs under her and stood up quickly, her hand gripping minkyung’s wrist and pulling her back towards the open window in the living room. her feet clanged against the metal of the fire escape.

they settled on the stairs between the girl’s apartment and the one below her, out of the window’s direct line of sight. minkyung let out a breath.

“give me your cell phone,” yebin commanded, holding her hand out. minkyung’s breath caught. of course it wasn’t going to be over that quickly.

she handed it over without question, giving the other girl a wary look. yebin didn’t seem to notice. she took the phone and started typing.

“good, she’s not in your contacts,” she said quietly. “i need you to call her.”

“what?”

“tell her you live downstairs and there’s something weird leaking through her bathroom floor.”

“why don’t you do it?”

“she’ll recognize my voice,” yebin argued, holding the phone back out to minkyung with a pleading look. “come on, we’ve gotten this far. don’t out on me now.”

minkyung hesitated before letting out a breath and taking the phone. yebin grinned.

the line rang for what seemed like forever. minkyung bit her lip, waiting for the girl on the other end to pick up. it went to voicemail the first time, but yebin insisted she must have been sleeping and they tried again.

this time the line cut off after three rings, and minkyung heard an unfamiliar voice on the other end of the line, sounding groggy as they said, “hello?”

minkyung bolted up straight, her eyes wide. yebin waved her on. “hi, sorry. i live below you, and uh, we’ve been noticing something weird leaking through the ceiling.”

“what? what time is it?”

“sorry, but it’s gross. i don’t think it can wait until morning.”

yebin was grinning teasingly, and minkyung shot her a look. “you’re a bad liar,” yebin mouthed. minkyung shoved her knee in annoyance, focusing back on the girl on the other end of the line.

“i think it’s coming from your bathroom. would you please see if something is leaking?”

the girl on the other end paused before letting out a breath. minkyung heard a rustle as she moved around, probably getting out of bed. “yeah, yeah, hang on.”

“she’s going,” minkyung mouthed to yebin, who motioned for her to hang up quickly.

“thank you, let me know if you find anything in your bathroom,” minkyung said into the phone before pulling it away from her ear and hanging up, not even waiting to hear the girl’s response. her fingers were white around her phone as she and yebin waited in tense silence in the second after she hung up.

suddenly, a loud shriek seemed to rattle the entire building. something thudded immediately after, and minkyung could imagine the girl hitting the wall or the floor as she jumped away from the crickets inside the bathroom door. minkyung looked to yebin quickly, her eyes wide. yebin had a hand over to keep from laughing out loud and her eyes were sparkling with satisfaction. for a few seconds minkyung stared, transfixed.

then she heard movement in the apartment below them, and a light in the window clicked on. yebin stood quickly, pulling minkyung down the stairs and climbing down the fire escape in a hurry. the girl was still screaming when they reached the bottom.

yebin pulled her away from the building and around the corner before she stopped. she glanced back the way they came, making sure no one had seen them, before bursting into a fit of ecstatic laughter. minkyung stared for a second, but when she met the shorter girl’s eyes, she couldn’t help but laugh too.

 

 

 

“what time is it?” yebin asked as they reached minkyung’s building. they had decided to walk home from the girl’s neighborhood instead of taking the train, and most of the walk had been spent joking about the screaming and what had probably happened afterwards. yebin had offered to walk minkyung home since it was late and she owed her for dragging her along on a revenge plot, but even though it was late, minkyung realized she wasn’t really ready to go home yet.

“12:39,” she responded after checking her phone.

“all that only took us two hours,” yebin pointed out, her voice a little disappointed.

“it feels like it took longer.”

yebin hummed, looking up at minkyung’s building. minkyung followed her sightline curiously, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. it just looked like her building.

“what?” she asked.

“do you know how to get onto your building’s roof?”

 

 

 

they were leaning back, their eyes upwards to the sky even though the light pollution made it impossible to actually see any stars. yebin’s hair fanned out around her shoulders like a shooting star. minkyung didn’t care. she didn’t mind pretending.

“my dad used to drive me out to the countryside and we’d lay in the bed of his truck and watch the stars. you could see so many it was impossible to count. he told me he’d buy me anything i wanted if i could give him a concrete number how many there were.” yebin’s voice was quiet, filled with something different than minkyung had heard from her all night. she put the beer bottle they had swiped from minkyung’s apartment to her lips before continuing. “then he started fighting with my mom and we never left the city again. until he did by himself and never came back.”

minkyung hummed. she knew yebin liked to talk around subjects instead of directly explaining things, and it felt special that she was speaking freely, even if it was something minkyung didn’t know what to do with.

she glanced over at the other girl, unsure how to respond. minkyung’s parents were happy and still married, and they had never fought in front of her, at least in her recent memory. she had no real experience with family issues.

but yebin’s eyes were still pointed upwards, her beer disappearing with every passing minute. she didn’t look like she warranted a response.

minkyung took a sip of her own beer and let the silence envelope them for a few minutes.

“what’s your major?” she asked finally, when the quiet was putting her to sleep.

“business marketing and management,” yebin answered, almost robotically. when she spoke next, her voice was filled with bitterness, and it made minkyung’s heart sting. “something that will get me a job and keep me completely mindless. nothing tricky about it.”

“is that why you chose it? to get a job?”

“might as well do something concrete.” yebin shrugged. “it’s safe. my mom was very happy with the idea of safe.”

“but what about you?” minkyung folded her legs under her, her attention focused on the girl next to her. yebin didn’t look at her.

“what about me?” she asked.

“what do you want to do?”

yebin let out a humorless chuckle, her jaw locking. minkyung wondered if she had stepped too far.

“i wanted to dance,” yebin said simply, finishing her beer.

“past tense?”

the girl nodded. “once upon a time i was going to be a ballerina. my mom had me taking classes and going to prestigious summer camps and doing everything she could to get me ahead. but i wasn’t tall enough or pretty enough or good enough.” she paused, and minkyung wondered how many people knew this side of her. as the night wore on, yebin had started to seem less dangerous and less delinquent. now she just looked like an angry kid who had been disappointed her entire life and left with nothing but low expectations. “so that dream ended. now i’m failing half my classes and drinking with strangers on their rooftops at 1am.”

“hey, we just released crickets in a girl’s bathroom together. i don’t think we’re strangers anymore,” minkyung pointed out.

yebin finally glanced at her, a ghost of a smile on her lips before she turned away. “i should go,” she said heavily, pulling herself up into a sitting position to match minkyung’s. “i didn’t mean to unload all that on you.”

“who else would you tell?” minkyung asked wryly. “i’m failing too, remember?”

“one class,” yebin pointed out. “that’s not the same thing as being on the verge of getting kicked out.”

minkyung bit her lip, hesitating for a second as she looked at the other girl. yebin seemed so small now, compared to three hours ago when she was smoking in front of her and proposing crazy schemes. she couldn’t decide which version of her she preferred.

“i don’t think you’re going to get kicked out,” she said finally. “i think you need to reevaluate the classes you’re taking. why are you majoring in something you don’t care about?”

“because i failed at the thing i cared about.”

“you’re nineteen, you didn’t fail. you’ve hardly done anything.” minkyung didn’t know where her words were coming from, but she decided to run with it. maybe she could help her, at least a little bit. like she was supposed to in the first place.  “there’s more you can do with dancing than being a ballerina. i’ve heard being a professional ballerina , actually.”

yebin laughed quietly, and minkyung couldn’t help but smile.

“you’re spending thousands of dollars for this college, i don’t think you should be wasting it on something safe.”

yebin looked at her, and minkyung saw something different in her eyes, something soft and grateful. she decided she definitely liked this version of her more, the one who was open and vulnerable. the one that made minkyung remember she was the older one. and she realized she definitely wanted to see both sides of her a lot more.

“it’s late,” yebin said after a minute of silence passed between them. “i’m sorry for keeping you up. and making you play therapist. but i should go.”

minkyung didn’t argue.

 

 

 

she walked minkyung down to her apartment in silence, but it wasn’t really uncomfortable. the air between them seemed charged with something, but it didn’t make minkyung feel upset or scared. it was just different.

“are you gonna be okay getting home this late?” she asked before they parted ways.

“yeah,” yebin shrugged. “i’ve walked home way later than this before.”

minkyung nodded, opening the door to her apartment. yebin bounced back and forth on the balls of her feet, seemingly unsure how to say goodbye.

“be safe getting home.” she said, and yebin nodded. with a small wave, yebin left her in the doorway to her apartment and started down the hall to the elevator.

“hey, yebs,” minkyung called quietly after her. the other girl turned to look at her, her eyes filled with soft curiosity. “text me if you ever need tutoring again, yeah?”

yebin grinned. minkyung’s heart flipped over in her ribcage. “will do. goodnight, minkyung.”

minkyung waited outside her apartment until the elevator doors closed and yebin was gone.

“goodnight.”

---

honestly i don't know how i feel about this story and its pacing yet idek but the fact that i finished something is enough for me rn. as usual my twitter is @kangyesbian19 if you wanna cry over pristin with me. 

also i know yaebin was only blonde with dark roots for like .02 seconds but it is an aesthetic and i am milking it ok.